Duck Hunting

I am philosphically opposed to throwing out old bread.  To me, bread still has a higher purpose once it is stale or moldy: to feed ducks.  If I was still living in Civilization, I know exactly where I would go: the duck pond in Wellesley, Dug Pond in Natick, or where Sunshine Dairy used to be in Framingham.  That is three places within a ten-minute car ride that I can think of off the top of my head.  Living here in the great state of Vermont, I drew a blank.  And so did JDubbs.  And his parents.  I mean, seriously, we have a bear but we can't find ducks??

So Jax, Em, and I, armed with old hamburger and hot dog rolls, went off on a mission to find some hungry ducks.  Jen recommended Murphy's Farm, and I think that would have been a better bet, but I also wanted ice cream so we headed to Woodstock to The White Cottage for some bird-hunting.  I would have settled for any old bird to be honest, but I figured that any place with a picnic area near water would have ducks.  Right?  Wrong.

We found no ducks.  But that did not stop J from wading into the water and feeding the teeny tiny little minnows swimming by.  They didn't much care for our day-old bread, but it was something, anything, to feed, so we went with it.

J loved being allowed in the river (wasn't so thrilled with being asked to get out, but that's another story) and fed the ducks minnows enthusiastically.  I was so proud of him being a really good listener and not falling in, until his very last piece of bread...

...oops!

Look at at face! All innocence, like, Who me? Oh, I just fell into the river and you have no change of clothes for me?  Oops!

Then E woke up and decided to join the party (aka was hungry), so J explored the picnic area in his wet pants to his heart's content.

One more unsuccessful stop to look for ducks,

...then we headed home.  This is an example of a day when I wished I still lived in the town where I grew up, where I know every pond and can find a duck with my eyes closed.  We even had a troupe of ducks in Maine!  I guess I have a new mission so my kids can have that same bread-wasting aversion that I do--or maybe it's just time for a road trip to Civilization!